Hazard
by Ring-Around-Poesy
Summary: Bella Swan has seen many horrors in her young life, will someone come along to help mend her broken heart? Songfic; 'Hazard' by Richard Marx. This will not have a tragic ending! Promise.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**; Hazard  
**Description**; Bella Swan has seen many horrors in her young life, will someone come along to help mend her broken heart?

**Rating** ; Nothing too graphic but a bit of violence, some ladies smooching... all the good stuff.  
**Author's Note**; Loosely based on the Richard Marx song 'Hazard', this will be a song fic of 7 chapters. After hearing the song a few weeks ago, it got stuck in my head and this plot line unravelled. I had to write it before my head exploded. I've obviously taken some liberties with the lyrics as our beautiful Bella is not a 'he' and I'll be using 'Forks, Washington' instead of 'Hazard, Nebraska'. I don't own Twilight and I don't own Hazard.

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_**My mother came to Forks when I was just seven  
Even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes  
That girl's not right ...**_

I remember the day we came to Forks vividly. It was a stormy day, the wind and rain battering off our old classic car. Classic meaning rusting, old and noisy. I sat in the back seat with my dog, Cooper resting his head on my lap as I looked out at the bleak scenery as it blurred passed. I was only seven at the time, but even then, I knew I was different. I knew something was wrong with me. The children at my old school certainly wouldn't let me think any differently. They'd call me 'freak', 'weirdo' and a veritable plethora of derogatory names. I don't remember a time when I didn't feel like something was wrong; like something bad was about to happen. And in my short life so far, many bad things _had _happened. It was like a cloud of death enveloped me. Anywhere I went, death to those close to me would follow. It started with my father.

I was five at the time, and can only remember a blurry outline of what he looked like. He had kind eyes and a soft smile, I know that much of him. And he _was_ a good, kind man who loved my mother and I dearly.

One day my father went fishing and took me with him. It was a favourite past time of his and I was more than happy to spend some time with my dad. He doted on me and I saw him as my hero.

I have a vague recollection of a struggle and then it all goes blank. No matter how much I try to remember what happened between laughing with my father as he made a fish he caught talk to me, and being found by the rescue party five hours later trembling and crying, I only get the occasional disturbing flash.

A hand coming out of the shallow water. A pair of red eyes. My father disappearing over the side of the boat. Me screaming.

Two days later in a hospital with my mother by my bedside, a grief stricken face and red, blotchy eyes, I wakened up screaming for my father.

He never came to me. He was gone.

Once I'd recovered from the pneumonia I was suffering from and was released home, I knew it would never again feel like the warm, loving, happy environment I had been surrounded by before.

My father's body was found scattered around our house five days after the boat incident. Devoid of any traces of blood, his remains only had two puncture marks on his severed neck. No one understood why or how his body got ripped to pieces, and subsequently why his remains were placed around our home, but it was clear that Charlie had been murdered.

I went back to school one week after his funeral. My best friends, Rebecca and John helped as much as any five year olds could. They didn't quite understand what my father being dead meant. I didn't understand it myself. All I knew was that I'd never race home to have him waiting to take me out fishing, or play football, or do any of the things other kids got to do with their fathers ever again.

Six months after my father was murdered, Rebecca disappeared .Her body was found in the same condition my father's was left. Drained of blood and scattered around my home. My mother was beside herself, even becoming a suspect of these murders before her alibi was corroborated by her boss. Renee had been working both times the murders had taken place. The only person who couldn't be accounted for, was me.

It was only my father and I in the boat, and since his murder, I had taken to slipping out of my house and just running anywhere in the intense Phoenix heat to feel _something_, even it was only pain and exhaustion. On the day what was left of Rebecca was found, I had been one mile from my home, alone and staring across the deserted land behind our house.

There was no evidentiary support that I had anything to do with the murders, and really, how could a five year old overpower a fully grown man and then dismember him? But that didn't stop the rumours. Gossip doesn't have to be true to spread, it just has to be heard.

So when the same tragedy happened to John another six months after that, even I at six years of age could see the only thing these people had in common was me.

Renee and I lasted three months after John's murder before she suggested we move somewhere different, make a fresh start away from the horrible memories and harassment.

Of course, when we got to Forks, our tragic little story had followed us there. I knew it would be no different here. The dreary town may have a different house to live in, different smells, different people; but they held the same prying nature, the same judgemental attitudes and the same cruel remarks that we thought we could leave behind in Phoenix.

Throughout the next decade of my school years the children were relentless with their comments. They never said it to my face, but made sure they whispered loudly enough for me to hear when I passed them in the hallways.

"_I heard she killed her pops."_

"_Oh, don't talk to her, if you say something she doesn't like she'll probably kill you."_

"_Murderer!"_

"_Oh look, it's Bella the Butcher!"_

These and other snide comments became my only and constant companion during my formative years. It wasn't until my final year in high school did things start to get better. And it was all because of an enigmatic, kind, beautiful, sprite-like girl with jet black hair and mischievous eyes.

Her name was Mary Alice Brandon.

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I know- it starts off a bit heavy, but I promise with the introduction of our favourite short haired pixie, there will be better times ahead =) If you're interested in seeing where this will go, please leave a review. I'll only continue if you guys want me to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much to Ellep, sexyoutlaw, ThatOneANon, XxXDeathByDawnXxX and baxterbuff=) your little bit of encouragement really does go a long way! This chapter's somewhat lighter than the first (I did promise). **

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Three years ago when I came to know Mary  
First time that someone looked beyond the rumours and the lies  
And saw the girl inside ...

Ten years had passed since the last murder connected to me. Even after all this time, I could never shift the memories of the horrors that happened in Phoenix, never get rid of the feeling I was being watched. Stalked.

I had managed to distance myself from everyone in my life. No-one spoke to me in school unless to deliver a cutting remark and my mother had met a minor league baseball player and was travelling all around the country with him.

I knew this was what was best. This was safe. For everyone. If I didn't get close to anyone, then no-one could be taken away from me ever again. And for a while, it worked. I only felt the occasional shiver down my spine when I sensed a predator's eye upon me. Soon it was lessened to a few times a year, then once a year, and now it had been three years since I felt it at all.

But, the best laid plans always seem to go awry by the introduction of one unseen variable, one thing that blindsides you and leaves you changed forever.

Mary Alice Brandon was an enigma. She was the most popular girl in school from the moment she stepped foot through the doors. A transfer student from Biloxi, Mississippi, she was incredible to watch. She was a cheerleader and track star, and had a feline grace coupled with her immense beauty, a confident air about her without coming across as arrogant. I was enraptured, but I knew I wouldn't act on my fascination. I was now used to the isolation.

I remember our first encounter. It was exactly a week after Alice started Forks High School. As everyone was too afraid to sit next to 'Bella the Butcher', I always had a free seat in class. That is, until a certain vertically challenged model-esque pixie came along. I was sitting on my own as usual, happy that my classmates had finally after so many years progressed from glaring and whispering to ignoring me altogether, when I heard the chair beside me scrape across the floor and reposition itself with a body pulling it in. I frowned and turned away from the window I had been aimlessly staring out of and looked to my right. There she was, grinning from ear to ear as if she was unaware of the open mouthed students around us and incredulous looks on their faces.

"Hi! I'm Mary Alice Brandon, but you can call me Alice. I'm new." She held out her hand in the universal greeting for normal people. I wasn't normal. I had been so starved of social etiquette I didn't know what to do with myself. So I stared, every bit as open mouthed and incredulous as my peers. She giggled, a heavenly sound, and reached for my hand herself, shaking it with an exaggerated up and down motion . "Why hello there, Alice. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm..." She raised her eyebrows expectantly as she spoke the words I should have said to her.

"Butcher. I mean Bella, I'm Bella." I stuttered, mortified at my slip. I had accepted my nickname a long time ago, and somewhere along the way I had stopped thinking of myself of 'Bella', and had taken on the moniker of 'Bella the Butcher' without protest. It was just easier I had no friends; no friends meant no deaths.

The beauty beside me gave me a curious look, but didn't let the smile slip from her face.

"Well, Bella, it's nice to meet you. I'm hopeless at Shakespeare, so I hope you can help me along." She pulled out 'As You Like It', looking into my eyes with her beautiful hazel ones and didn't look away until the click of heels approached us. Alice was tapped on the shoulder while a throat cleared.

"Em, Mary Alice? I know you're new here and all, but surely you've been warned about... _her._"

Jessica Stanley. Bane of my life and President of the 'Let's Torture Isabella Swan Club'.

I sighed and shifted away from Alice and Jessica. I took to looking out the window again and tracking the progress of the rain running down the window. Pathetic fallacy at its finest, the weather was certainly reflecting my mood.

"I'm sorry, what?" Alice asked with a hint of something I couldn't put my finger on. I'd later come to recognise it as defiance.

*_Oh god, don't make her explain. Not while I'm sitting right here. She'd get too much of a kick out of that when you look at me in panic and scarper off to another table.*_

"Oh, so you haven't heard?" Her gleeful expression tore through me once more as she prepared to twist the knife in _that_ much deeper. "Thank god, I knew you couldn't be sitting here voluntarily if you knew. Well," She settled herself on the desk beside us, leaning on it and taking a large breath to get through the terrifying tale of my dramatic past, ending with a dramatic whisper about how everyone thinks I did it.

"Actually, I had heard the rumours," I whipped my head towards the raven haired girl. "but I didn't think anyone in good conscience could be so heartless and ignorant as to bully and torment a girl who had lost their father and two best friends at such a young age. I thought it was a poor attempt at a joke."

Jessica and I looked on with equal parts shock, and equal parts astonishment.

"Because I mean, who would believe a five year was capable of that? And for that matter, surely if any of it held any truth, you'd be dead, Jessica. I know if I was a homicidal maniac and had someone torturing me five days a week, I'd certainly have snapped a long time before now." Alice finished matter-of-factly, as though she'd told Jessica something as obvious as that it was raining today.

"Anyway, " Alice smiled towards me, "Bella here's promised to help me with my Shakespeare. Right, Bells?"

I continued to look at Alice in awe, as did Jessica, but a swift kick to my shin from my new saviour brought me out of my stupor.

"Sure." I nodded. Rubbing my shin and trying to get my head around the fact that this girl had heard the rumours, knew that it was deemed unacceptable to talk to me, and yet here she sat, defending me for the first time in my life and offering up her friendship without agenda. I was mesmerized by the girl.

"Good. Well, now that that's settled, you should probably get to your seat Jessica. Class is starting. I'll see you at cheerleading practice."

Alice dismissed the near catatonic girl with a smile. Jessica walked off, unsure as to what just happened. It seemed she was livid that Alice had dared speak to her in such a manner, but also that she was too afraid to be on Alice's bad side now she knew the girl was unaffected by her 'Mean Girl Wrath'. This and the fact she realised Alice was unafraid of standing up for herself (and me) made Alice one of the high school marvels; A girl that was able to flit between social groups and keep her popularity intact. I know that she cared little for the social standing in school, but she used her influence by being in the popular crowd to re-direct some of the daily torture the jocks and co. dished out to the geeks, the artistic kids and the musically gifted. She did spend most of her time with me, and I quickly fell in love with the girl. Her heart was as beautiful as she was. She genuinely cared about the treatment of others and endeavoured to help stop any mistreatment she saw happening.

And so when she kissed me for the first time one day at lunch, I knew she was it for me. Every day after that we sat at my designated empty table, secluded away from the rest of the student body holding hands, kissing and talking about our future together without the prying eyes of those around us.

Being the resident freak in town had to have its advantages at some point.

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I would absolutely love to hear what you think, please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh wow- thank you so much for the reviews! **

aquarius127, aku-neko, Shoelace22, Rose of Cassidy, Avarenda, L'adorateur de femmes, jlyric; You're all amazing! As are the people who favourite and alerted this- I'm so flattered! Thank you!

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We used to walk down by the river  
She loved to watch the sun go down  
We used to walk along the river  
And dream our way out of this town ...

It had been three blissful years since Alice came into my life, six blissful years since I felt that horrible feeling of being stalked, and I was finally letting myself relax into the thought of having a happy life filled with love instead of fear. Acceptance instead of judgement and whispers.

The final year of my high school career was amazing. People were still afraid of me of course, but with Alice by my side, no one dared cause me any trouble. All it took was a raised eyebrow and a challenging look from my beautiful girl, her holding my hand through the corridors, or even a tender kiss to my lips to silence whatever insult was brewing in the minds of my childhood tormentors. I didn't care what anyone thought of me; I had Alice. And for some unknown reason, she saw goodness and humour and a slightly broken but fixable heart in me. She made it her own personal mission to achieve the feat of mending my heart. And she did. She loved me and let me love her in return. She saved me in ways I couldn't begin to grasp.

Alice and her family didn't get on that well. They tolerated each other up until Alice turned eighteen and then told her it was time she made it on her own. We pulled our combined money together from our part time jobs and got ourselves a little apartment on the outskirts of town. It had an amazing view of the Quillayute River which quickly became one of our favourite places to spend time together. We would walk hand in hand simply enjoying being together, have picnics on the odd days where it was bright and warm. Alice loved being outside, she would take Cooper, now aged and slow, on daily walks along the river side. On her way home she would pick me flowers from the areas where flora and fauna thrived in the wetlands.

It was perfect.

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"Hey Bells." Alice spoke as she stroked her fingers through my hair. She was leaning against a tree as I read a book, my head on her lap.

"Hey Alice." I turned my head to look up at her and smiled as she rolled her eyes at me.

The sun was just beginning to go down, and we were bathed in an orange hue. She looked breathtaking.

"I'm going to say something, and I don't want you to freak out." I sat up abruptly. Nothing good ever came after saying 'don't freak out'. "These last few years with you have been amazing. But I want more than what we have here." I felt my heart beat against my chest, I felt sick, I felt lost. This was it; the final nail in my coffin after all these years. The girl I loved was going to leave me. Just like everyone else I had ever loved in my life, she would leave and I'd be alone again. I knew this was one loss I would never be able to get over. "I don't like wanting to kick every asshole's ass that looks at you the wrong way, or see someone whispering and pointing at you when we walk through town together. I don't want to live like this anymore, Bella." She looked at me sadly as I stood up and turned my back to her, the tears making my vision blurry. The sunset looked like I was watching it from underwater.

"I'm sorry, Alice. I know it must have been hard for you all these years. And honestly, I'm surprised I got to spend this much time with you. Happiness and me were never very familiar with each other, looks like it was a limited time offer. I'm so thankful for everything you've done for me. I don't even know where I'd be without you. I don't blame you for wanting to leave me-"

Alice suddenly spun me towards her with an incredulous look on her face.

"Bella, what are you talking about you silly girl? I'm not leaving you, you idiot. I want us to move away from this godforsaken town!" She giggled into my ear as she hugged me fiercely to her. "I told you before, Bella, I'll never leave you. I love you so much." She whispered to me as I sobbed into her shoulder, clinging to the girl as though she would float away. "I want to go somewhere where we can just... be us, start new. Not have to worry about anyone hurting you if I'm late home from work, or if I'm not with you when you go to the grocery store. I promised you three years ago I'd always keep you safe, and that's not a promise I'll ever be prepared to break. I just think keeping this promise would be a lot easier if we got out of this one horse town and moved somewhere that suited us better. But not before I make an honest woman out of you." She pulled back a bit to look into my eyes. "Because evidently I haven't been making myself clear enough, Miss Swan. I want to be with you. Forever. I don't want to live a life without your dreadful snoring or burnt scrambled eggs." She smirked at me and kissed the tip of my nose. "But mostly, I don't want to live my life without seeing your beautiful face every day until we're grey and old, sitting on some sunny porch somewhere on our rocking chairs complaining about how cheap everything used to be in 'our day'." She giggled and unwrapped her arms from my waist, taking my left hand in hers as she got down on one knee. "So, Isabella Swan, the most beautiful damsel in distress I've ever seen, will you spend the rest of your life with a woman who loves you with all her heart?"

I nodded, laughing through my tears and leapt on her, kissing her fiercely and pushing her down to the ground.

I was glad we brought the picnic blanket with us.

Otherwise there could have been poison ivy in places no one should _ever have _poison ivy.

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I should have said this at the start and for that I apologise; because this is, technically, a songfic, I won't be delving into massive detail about every aspect of the girls' relationship. A lot of songfics I read have been one chapter long, but I wanted to do one chapter for every verse. And while it may be slightly longer than the average songfic, it will still be snapshots of their lives. The big events without delving into too much detail; just enough to take us through a mini story within the song's story, if that makes sense. I hope this doesn't irritate anyone, but it's how the story has to go to flow correctly.


	4. Chapter 4

_**No one understood what I felt for Mary  
No one cared until the night she went out walking alone  
And never came home ...  
Man with a badge came knocking next morning  
Here was I surrounded by a thousand fingers suddenly  
Pointed right at me ...**_

Mary Alice Brandon became Mary Alice Swan that fall. She chose to take my name in the end after I said how well it suited her. Her fluidity when she moved always reminded me of some gorgeous, graceful creature. Swan just fitted.

People in town still had a grudging sort of respect for Alice, and so our wedding day held only the kind of excitement and outrage in some cases that you would come to expect of two women declaring their love for one another. No one interfered, no one made nasty comments. Mostly they just left us to it. For that I was grateful. I didn't want _anything_ to ruin this day for us.

I had never before been happier or more content in life.

But, as was the usual, I couldn't be left to enjoy the feeling. I began to get the familiar chill down my spine that something bad was about to happen again, that someone was watching us. I tried to ignore it, to focus on Alice's promise that she would never leave me. I know my father and friends didn't leave me by choice, but Alice had truly made me believe that we'd be happy and together until the day we died.

Alice went on one of her daily walks, Cooper in tow, on a particularly stormy day. I asked her not to go, afraid she would catch her death of cold, but she was adamant that she would be fine. She had been gone no more than forty-five minutes when I had that odd feeling, stronger than it had been in over thirteen years.

I grabbed my coat and threw on a pair of Wellington boots rushing out the door. I searched for miles along the river, following the same route Alice had taken every day since we moved there. She wasn't there, she wasn't anywhere I looked. I was frantically searching when I tripped on something. I looked towards the ground beside my feet and saw Cooper's body.

Still. Unmoving. Dead.

I screamed. I screamed until I my voice gave out. Until my lungs and throat and heart were burning. I stayed lying on the forest floor, curled up, sobs wracking through my body. I had given up. I'd lost her. I'd lost the love of my life. My wife. The only one to ever understand me, to defend me, to love me. She was gone and my heart had gone with her.

The monster from my past was back. It was back and it had taken Alice away from me.

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The police found me for the second time in my life curled up and crying over losing the person closest to me.

I was, of course, the main suspect.

Everyone knew 'Bella the Butcher' had been living with the poor girl who was missing. Married, in fact! Imagine, luring the poor girl into marital bliss only to snap and kill the poor dear.

I made no struggle, put up no fight when the Sheriff came to arrest me on suspicion of murder. It didn't matter to me whether I was in the Ritz or in a prison cell; I wasn't with Alice and that's the only place I ever wanted to be.

The whole town was in an uproar. They weren't interested in the facts, they never had been. This was a witch hunt and I may as well have riding around town on a broom.

Character witnesses were called for evidence, all painting a caricature of me. I didn't expect anything less; no one knew who I really was. No one except... except for people who were gone.

But something gave me hope. Something was different this time; Alice's body didn't turn up mutilated like the others. Her body didn't turn up at all.

As long as she was missing, there was hope that she would come back to me.

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**_Thank you for the reviews, favourites and alerts! _**

**_THERE WILL NOT BE A SAD ENDING! _**


	5. Chapter 5

_**I swear I left her by the river  
I swear I left her safe and sound  
I need to make it to the river  
And leave this old Washington town...**_

No matter how many times I tried to explain to the authorities that I didn't know what happened to my wife, it was like talking to a brick wall. I went through time and time again exactly what happened leading up to Alice's disappearance.

We had breakfast together, we went to work, we came home and I made us dinner, we ate, Alice took Cooper for her walk along the riverside, I got worried and went looking for them.

"Miss Swan we-"

"Mrs." I cut him off with a glare.

"Excuse me?" The sheriff countered.

"Mrs Swan. I'm married, Sheriff, to the girl in question who's currently missing. And instead of using your time to look for the actual perpetrator, you're here questioning the one person who would die before causing her any harm. Physical or otherwise." I was frustrated. Frustrated and angry and every toxic emotion you can think of.

"Listen, _Mrs._ Swan," He sneered at me, "We found you at the scene of the crime, once again. The pathologist has confirmed the cause of death on the canine matches a one Charles Swan, a one Rebecca Stewart and a one John Stevenson. This is your M.O. Always has been. You kill those closest to you, isn't that right? What happened, lover's tiff?"

I looked at him in disbelief.

"My 'M.O'? Don't be so absurd! I was _five!_ The only M.O. I had was trying to avoid getting quarters stuck up my nose. Now get your head out of your ass and _go find my wife!_"

"Quite a temper you have on you there, Mrs. Swan. What happened, hmm? Did Alice want to leave you? She have enough of living with the town freak? Did she go spread her legs for someone else; someone normal?"

I jumped out of my seat and went for him. I knew he was baiting me but Sheriff or not, he would not talk about Alice that way. He caught my wrist before it slapped his face, but didn't see the left hook coming his way until it smashed into his nose.

"Throw her in the cell!" He called to his deputy as he threw me towards him. The bastard was trying to stop the blood pouring from his broken nose.

Every day for a week we went through the same routine. I would be accused, I would deny, he would push me until I snapped and I would be thrown back into my cell.

During this time, I felt the familiar shiver return to me. I was being watched, even here, lying alone in my cell.

I knew the monster was close. I knew whoever it was would hear me.

"Come on then, you bastard! Come and face me! Stop killing innocent people and just _take_ me! I'm obviously who you want! So do it! Come on!" I sobbed through the small window covered only by bars. "_Just take me_." I whispered into the night before collapsing onto my bed.

Little did I know, two crimson eyes watched from a distance, a sinister smirk on their achingly handsome face.

"Soon, my Bella, soon. You, me and Alice will have _such_ fun together." The owner of the voice chuckled and sped off in a blur.

It was only a matter of time before I came face to face with the creature that ruined my life.

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_**The alerts, favourites and reviews especially make my day! Thank you all!**_

_**I think you'll enjoy the next chapter- it's MUCH longer, has the introduction of 'the monster', the return of our beloved missing wife and perhaps the beginning of the happy ending I'm promising... **_

_**The more reviews, the quicker I post =D **_


	6. Chapter 6

_**I think about my life gone by  
And how it's done me wrong  
There's no escape for me this time  
All of my rescues are gone, long gone...**_

I was released exactly a week and a half after Alice's disappearance. I went back to our house; it felt wrong to call it a home without Alice there. It ceased to be a home the minute she wouldn't be walking through the door.

I looked for her every waking hour for three months. I never gave up hope; I knew she was still here somewhere. I could sense it. This felt different to my father, to Rebecca and John. I'd find Alice alive and everything would be fine. They'd see.

Everything would be fine.

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Everything was not fine.

At the start of the fourth month, I saw something in the trees. A piece of clothing. A piece of Alice's clothing. I set off at a run and ripped it from the branch it was stuck on. There was dried blood all over it.

It was her coat, the one she was wearing the night she went missing. I was filled with such hope that I'd find her, but such trepidation that I wouldn't like what I would find.

I heard a _whoosh_ beside me. I spun around to find nothing but trees. Another _whoosh_ and this time I was airborne. I landed with an '_umph_' some twenty feet away. I was winded and my arm hurt like hell but I stood up defiantly, looking for the assailant. I had a feeling I wouldn't be exiting the forest alive, but I knew the time had finally come for my monster to make itself known. And I had nothing to lose.

Suddenly finding myself bound to the trunk of a tree, I looked around desperately for this phantom abusing me.

"Well, well, well. The lamb is looking for the lion. What a silly little lamb."

A bronze haired, chiselled cheek-boned and crimson eyed man swaggered towards me. I knew instinctively this was him; the reason behind my heartache for all these year, and I hated myself for being awed by his inhuman beauty and grace. He blurred towards me and sniffed the length of my neck, sighing in pleasure as he put his hand gently on my cheek.

"And so the beauty meets the beast. Let me introduce myself; my name is Edward Cullen, and I'll be ending your life tonight. I have such surprises in store for you little one." I snapped out of my momentary daze and spat in his face.

"Where's my _wife?_" I growled at him.

He slapped me hard across my cheekbone, wiping his face of my saliva. I felt like he'd thrown a brick at my face.

"Spitting is not befitting of a lady!" He was livid, his crimson eyes darkening and piercing into me. "We must never lose our manners. We aren't animals after all. Well, some of us aren't." He grinned manically and blurred ten feet away from me.

"Aren't you wondering why I did it all, little lamb? Why did I take all those closest to you?" He came closer once more, his breath against my lips, head tilted in a curious fashion. "Well I'll tell you." He cleared his throat and looked seriously towards me.

Then he grinned.

"_For fun."_ He laughed and started pacing. "Oh I could tell you how you fascinated me, how your blood sang to me, how yours is the only mind I have never been able to penetrate, how watching you all these years has been such sweet torture. But really, it was just such jolly good fun watching the poor little outcast child bumble and struggle through life." He shrugged nonchalantly. "You make quite the beautiful tragic hero, Isabella Swan."

I could feel the tears stream down my cheeks. So it _was_ my fault my loved ones had died. I may not have murdered them with my own two hands, but something about me had caught this cruel creature's attention because I _was_ different. They were right. I was a freak and because of it they had died for no other reason than for this monster's entertainment in watching me suffer.

"But, for the final act in this little play I have constructed, I decided to do something special. One can only watch you cry over the loss of a loved one so many times before it becomes tedious." He was moving towards the edge of the forest line now. "You see, Bella, I am what you would call a creature of the night. A Vampire." I took a sharp intake of breath. "Yes, yes, gasp in horror for we are real!" He dramatically put his hand to his unbeating heart in a shocked manner. "And I have a special gift; I can read minds. All. But. Yours." He punctuated each word with a sharp tap of his finger to my nose, glaring at me with anger and frustration once more. He then shook his head and smiled. "But let's not dwell, Bella. Oh how I will enjoy unveiling the twist in the story..." He pulled from the tree line a petite form. The perfect, petite form of my wife, hanging limply from his hand like a ragdoll.

"NO! Not Alice! Please, not Alice! Take me! Just please, don't-"

"Oh hush. She's still alive... after a fashion. I had to sedate her somehow after she smelled your blood. Worked herself up into quite the frenzy. Look," He threw her to the ground close to me and I could see a large crack running from her temple right down the side of her beautiful face. "She's already healing." I watched in fascination as the marble like crack slowly started knitting itself together. "Now, before our dear Alice wakens up, I have some things to tell you about your wife. She's not entirely human anymore. You see, Bella, in a wonderful stroke of genius that I myself am impressed by, I thought about what would really be the worst way for you to die? By my hands, maybe. By the woman you love? Well, that would be wonderful! And so, I turned her into a vampire like myself. Now, my little human, when we're first turned, our bloodlust overpowers us. We have no rational thought other than to feed. We'd kill our own mothers to get a drop of the sweet nectar running through your veins. Trust me, I did, so I know what I'm talking about. This is called the 'Newborn Stage'." Alice was stirring on the ground, slowly rising and sniffing her surroundings. "And Bella, your wife is very much still in this wonderful stage of her vampiric life. Oooh, your spouse is thinking naughty thoughts, little lamb. Kill, kill, kill!" Edward was now restraining Alice, laughing all the while. She looked to me with crimson eyes and pulled her lip up exposing her fangs. Her eyes dilated and turned completely black as a feral snarl ripped from her throat.

"Now, Bella, our tragedy is coming to a close. And I for one can't wait to see how it all ends. You want your wife? Well here she is!" Edward let Alice go and in the space of time it took me to blink, I felt her body press into mine as she took a deep breath in the crook of my neck. I didn't even struggle. If I was going to die, then why not by wife's hands, or teeth, or however it was going to happen? I would rather it be her, someone who I loved and had loved me in return than by the hands of a sick, twisted thrill seeker. I knew Alice had no control, no choice in the matter. Edward had always known what he was doing. He enjoyed watching me suffer. And so as I whispered my love to Alice and prepared for the sweet release of death, I was unprepared to feel a gentle kiss on my pulse point and feel the ropes that bound me to the tree fall away.

"I remember my promise; I'll keep you safe. _Run!_ " She whispered to me and then used the tree as leverage to leap towards Edward. I couldn't move, I could only look on in horror as he screamed in anger while she bit and grappled him to the ground. Edward was obviously the more experienced fighter, he quickly bested Alice and pinned her to ground punching her face into the forest floor dazing her.

"What are you _doing_? I heard your thoughts Alice! You wanted to _kill_!" Edward screamed at her, horrified his little plan had backfired.

"You heard what I wanted you to hear, Edward. But you're right," Alice used her superior newborn strength to throw Edward across the clearing we were in. "My thoughts were only of killing. You, Edward, not my wife." Edward snarled and blurred towards her. They met in the middle with a clap like thunder ringing out. Alice managed to grab one of his arms and pull. She pulled with all her might and his arm tore right out of its socket. He screamed in pain, shaking with anger and frustration. "What you didn't bet on this whole time, _Eddie_," She sneered in his face, "was that my love for Bella would survive death." She threw his arm behind her and it disappeared into the foliage to my left. "And now I'm going to kill you for everything you ever put her through."

Edward growled deep and low, crouching into a defensive position. "She will die this night, Alice. I'll make sure of it." He snarled at her and jumped forwards. Alice was ready and took advantage of Edward's missing arm. She slammed her left foot into his ribs, watching as his face turned to a gleeful expression when she realised her mistake. Alice's kick sent him skidding to a halt ten feet away from me. He was at my throat quicker than Alice could get to me. Just as his fangs were about to rip into my neck, Alice pulled him back. It was still too late. He managed to sink his teeth into my shoulder. The all consuming pain I felt race through my entire body was debilitating.

I heard anguished screaming and I didn't know if it was my own voice or Alice's. I couldn't hear over the hammering beats of my heart, slowing until it stopped.

Edward was right.

I would die on this night.

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	7. Chapter 7

_**I swear I left her by the river  
I swear I left her safe and sound  
I need to make it to the river  
And leave this old Washington town...**_

Three days of excruciating pain later, I regained consciousness to find a pair of eyes looking at me. Eyes with crimson red irises. All at once the memories of the past few months came crashing around me.

Edward kidnapping me and trailing Alice from the tree line, thinking she was going to kill me, the tender kiss on my neck, the fight, Edward biting me... Oh god, the fight! Where was Edward?

I stood up quickly, too quickly. I'd never moved that fast in my life. I felt my hand slip out of someone else's at the movement and looked to my right.

There sat Alice looking towards me with those foreign yet familiar eyes, calmly letting me regain my bearings. We were in our apartment, in the bedroom and Alice looked more lovely than I ever remember her being.

"Is this heaven?" I asked, not believing she was really here with me; that we'd survived the attacks of Edward and were both alive and well. Reunited at last.

Alice laughed her melodious laugh and moved towards me. We both melded our bodies into one as we embraced for the first time in four hell-ridden months.

I dry sobbed into her shoulder, no tears forming but my body going through the motions regardless. I pulled back confused, a frown marring my features. I brought my hand up to my eye but there was no moisture.

"Alice...?"

"It's okay, honey." She took my hand in her own and brought it to her lips. "Come sit down a minute." I looked at her in adoration and relief. She was really here in front of me.

"We aren't in heaven, Bella, but we _are_ dead. Technically." She watched me with worried eyes.

"What?"

"Edward, before I tore the bastard apart, bit you Bella. When a vampire bites a human they inject a type of venom into the bloodstream. This venom is the catalyst for the change into what we are now; vampires."

I looked to Alice in fear. Edward had turned me into the monster he was. The monster that had preyed on me and my loved ones throughout my life. I would have rather died than become like him. Alice saw my distress and pulled me to her.

"You'll never be him, Bella, _never_. I won't let you." She whispered to me and rubbed soothing patterns on my back. "You can fight against the hunger and as for murdering people for fun? That was all Edward; it wasn't the vampire in him driving his twisted mind. He was psychotic before he was changed, Bella. That won't be you, I promise."

As I clung to her top, I could see the sense in what she was saying. She so easily could have killed me and drained me for a quick snack a few nights previous, but she was driven by her love for me, her need to protect me. I didn't care what I was as long as Alice and I were together and in love. I didn't need anything else. Letting go of my worries and apprehension I began to get an excited feeling at what this meant for us and our 'forever' together. I leaned back slightly to capture her lips in a searing kiss.

"Well, I suppose I'll just have to believe you. I wouldn't want to be the one who comes between you and keeping your promises. I've seen what happens to those who do."

She grinned at me and I could see the relief flood her eyes. "I told you I'd always protect you Bella, and I will. Just because I happened to die and 'always' really does _mean_ 'always' to us, don't think you're escaping seeing me race in like a knight in shining armour for you."

"And he's dead? He's finally gone?" I asked her in a small voice. I had to make sure. I needed to know that I'd never have to live looking over my shoulder ever again. Alice cupped my cheek and looked into my eyes.

"He's dead, Bells. I saw you lying there, writhing in pain because I was too slow, and something just took over me. I was so vicious in my destruction of him I could barely find the pieces he was left in. He sort of... disintegrated."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. It was _finally _over. My saviour had killed my monster, and I had all of eternity to show her just how grateful I was for her unending love.

I kissed her softly, unhurriedly. After all, we _did_ have forever.

* * *

We talked a lot about what this meant for us now. Where we would live, _how_ we would live. I certainly didn't relish the thought of killing anyone, but the burn in my throat was highly uncomfortable.

Through trial and error, after the hunger got too much for us both we found we could sustain ourselves off the blood of animals. That was one herd of deer that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We've yet to find a place to settle permanently, but we're enjoying being able to travel wherever and whenever we want.

That is, apart from one week out of the year.

We visit Forks every year on our anniversary. Though the town held such bad memories for us both, it was still the place where we met. It was also the place where we both became 'missing persons' and legally died. Even though our bodies were never found, the Sheriff pronounced us dead simply to close the case. He really was a bastard.

And so, every year on the 13th December, Alice and I appear to certain residents for a split second, holding hands, kissing, hugging... we get more creative each year. We appear just long enough for their eyes to focus on us and then we disappear. Blurring off to a safe distance we watch with mirth as they begin to question their sanity, thinking that they've seen the ghosts of the two lesbian lovers that were tragically murdered all those years ago. Our pale complexions only serve to reinforce this ghostly thought. After all the torture they dealt out to me, this little yearly prank is the least I could to do to say thanks.

We finish every year by visiting the Quillayute River. And this time, we both leave safely, happily and in each other's arms.

**The End**

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_**Well, folks, that's it! **_

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